


Walking the Line

by Annerb



Category: Stargate Atlantis, Stargate SG-1
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2009-09-21
Updated: 2009-09-21
Packaged: 2017-10-18 12:08:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 795
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/188742
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Annerb/pseuds/Annerb
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Jennifer Keller and Cameron Mitchell: His last words to her before she left Earth were: "Give 'em hell."</p>
            </blockquote>





	Walking the Line

Maybe Cameron Mitchell had somehow known how painfully under-prepared Jennifer was for this place.

The first time they met, he caught her talking to herself in one of the endless hallways in the SGC that conspired to look exactly like every other hallway, probably for the nefarious goal of making newly arrived staff such as herself look as ridiculous as possible.  Not that Cam interrupted her or offered to help. No, he just leaned against the nearest wall and watched her fumble with her orientation papers as she stared at the completely unhelpful color-coded lines on the floor, until she finally noticed he was there.

He grinned lazily at her as if he didn’t have anywhere else in the galaxy to be at that moment.  She really hoped this wasn’t a sign of what it would be like to work for the military.

“Are you just going to stare at me, or help me out?” she snapped, her aggravation getting the better of her.  What the hell was she thinking, accepting an assignment in another _galaxy_?

He didn’t seem to take exception to her tone. “Maybe I want to give you a chance to figure it out yourself first,” he said with a shrug.

Rolling her eyes, she randomly selected a line to follow.  She liked the color yellow.  It was as good a reason as any.  
   
“You could go that way,” he said in a way that made her stop mid-step.  “If you’re lookin’ to make an intergalactic call.”

She closed her eyes, briefly sending up a prayer for just a little more perseverance. After all, the damn Hippocratic Oath sort of frowned on physical violence. “Okay, so yellow leads to the control room?”

He nodded. “Yellow for yodels.”

“Excuse me?”

He pointed down at the rainbow of lines on the floor.  “Yellow for yodels. Red is restricted. Blue is for bandages. Green is for ‘get out quick’.”

She blinked back at him incomprehensibly, as if he had suddenly started speaking tongues, which she wasn’t entirely certain he hadn’t.

Looking a little defensive now, he said, “It’s a mnemonic device. You know, a trick for-.”

“I know what a mnemonic device is.”

“Great.”

She stared down at the lines, the Colonel’s crooked little nursery rhyme dancing in her head.  She wondered the chances that he was just messing with her, having a little fun at the expense of the pathetic civilian. She must have been insane, taking this job with the military.

“What about the white line?” she asked, realizing he’d left one off.

His face creased for a moment, and he frowned down at the line like it was a misbehaving pet.  “That one leads to command. The boss man.”

“What, no snappy little rhyme for that one?” she quipped.

He looked sheepish. “Couldn’t come up with anything that started with ‘W’.” Then his expression shifted, suddenly looking determined. “Yet.”

God. This guy might actually be for real. “You really aren’t messing with me, are you,” she said, feeling her shoulders finally relax.

“No. Why would I do that?” He honestly looked like he couldn’t imagine anyone doing that. She’d found herself an honest-to-God boy scout, right here in the middle of ‘aliens are real’ central.

Letting out a breath, she shoved her papers back into her bag and leaned back against the wall next to him.  “So,” she said, “you’re saying there was a time you had a hard time getting around in here too.”

He shoved his hands back in his pockets, shrugging one shoulder, but his gaze felt anything but nonchalant. “Everyone gets lost now and again,” he said, holding her gaze steady and she could feel it there, the advice and empathy he carefully layered in the words.

 _Everyone gets lost now and again._

He shot her one last smile and walked off before she could say anything else. Looking down at the lines beneath her feet, she pushed off the wall, stepping down determinedly on the middle one.

“Blue is for bandages,” she muttered to herself.

She made it the rest of the way without a single wrong turn.

*   *   *

Cam Mitchell was there again, the day she was finally supposed to step through the wormhole to another galaxy. He stood by the door to the gateroom, watching the latest set of personnel heading off to Pegasus, giving them all encouraging smiles like they were off on the adventure of a lifetime.

It was a little infectious, all things told.

“Give ‘em hell,” he said with that lazy grin of his as she passed.

Straightening her shoulders, she smiled right back at him, her stomach finally settling down into something like resolve.  She could do this.  She _would_ do this.

“Count on it,” she called back over her shoulder.


End file.
